Twenty-one-year-old Quazi
Nafis, who is accused of creating an elaborate plot to detonate a truck bomb outside of the New York Federal Reserve and kill President Obama, has pleaded not guilty during a brief hearing at a Brooklyn federal court Tuesday.

Nafis is being charged with attempting to use a
weapon of mass destruction and providing material
support to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization -- al
Qaeda.

If found guilty, Nafis could face life in prison.

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Top terror: Quazi Nafis, 21, has been described as one of the most dangerous terrorists since 9/11 after attempting to carry out an attack in New York on Wednesday after entering the U.S. on a student visa from Bangladesh

Though Nafis did not speak during the hearing, his lawyers said that they are in discussions with lawyers representing the government on a possible plea bargain.

Meanwhile, his father, who lives in Bangladesh, maintains that his son is innocent and called the trial a 'racist conspiracy.' He added that allegations made against Nafis are 'totally false' and that his son came to the country with the sole intention of studying.

But prosecutors are casting the Bangladesh student in a completely different light, calling him one of the most dangerous terrorists in the U.S. since 9/11.

Within weeks of arriving to the U.S. Nafis
was already recruiting members and building supplies to bring down
America before his presence was even known by federal agents, U.S.
Attorney Loretta Lynch told WNBC.

Lynch
compared the 21-year-old to previous terrorists who made their way into
the U.S. like the Zazi members who plotted to bomb New York City's
subway system in 2009.

'I would say he was as dangerous if
not more so than the Zazi members because nothing was going to stop him.
He was thinking if I do survive this, this will set me up to carry out
bigger and better plots in the future.'

Arrested in October after his
1,000lb car bomb parked blocks from the World Trade Center was supplied
with fake explosives by an undercover agent, Lynch said it was lucky he
was caught in time.

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'He would have been able to construct
this bomb, he would have been able to find others who would have helped
him do the lifting, do the carrying, and he was going to carry out this
act,' she said.

'He came here with the specific purpose of carrying out a terrorist attack and he came here already radicalized,' she said.

That's one assertion the family of
Nafis who helped finance his student visa, disagree to with his parents
calling his arrest part of a conspiracy.

Deadly mission: Law enforcement remove boxes of material from the Queens home of Nafis who is said to have begun building his attack the moment he arrived in January

Quiet move: U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch who is handling the case said that Nafis escaped the FBI's radar for a number of weeks after arriving to the U.S. first in Wisconsin, his New York apartment seen

To that Lynch said: 'It's not the
government targeting these young people it's al Qaeda targeting these
young people and we've got to figure out a way to break that hold.'

'He was not someone, again, who sat at the feet of Osama bin laden and learned but someone who was inspired by him.'

Since the plot's foil, a second man was arrested in connection to the planned attack in San Diego.

Howard Willie Carter II was implicated in the case after officers found hundreds of explicit images of
children on a hard drive dumped outside his apartment building. Around
30 home videos were also discovered by investigators.

On the hard drive an email account registed to 'Yaqueen' was found.
Yaqueen was listed as a co-conspirator of alleged terrorist Nafis.

Hunted: Howard Willie Carter II, the accomplice of suspected Federal Reserve bomber Quazi Nafis was arrested after child porn was found at his San Diego apartment

Alias: Carter went under the name of 'Yaqueen' online when he conspired with Nafis in New York

Yaqueen wanted to help in the attack, according to the criminal complaint seen by the New York Post but he is not facing terror-related charges.

Nafis, a 21-year-old student, allegedly planned to blow up the New
York Federal Reserve and target President Obama.

He is the
son of a prominent Bangladeshi banker who spent all his savings sending
the suspect to the U.S.

Quazi
Nafis entered America in January on a student visa after he
reportedly talked his father, the vice-president of a bank in
Bangladesh, into financing his education in Missouri.

But
he left after just one term and moved to New York City, claiming he
hoped to transfer his studies - when in fact he began plotting how to
'destroy America', authorities said.

His family, from a middle-class neighborhood of southeastern Dhaka, wept as they called the arrest 'a racist conspiracy' and referred to Nafis as their 'pride and joy'.

'He can't do it': Quazi Mohammad Ahsanullah, the father of Quazi Nafis, holds a portrait of his son in Dhaka

New York City Police Commissioner
Raymond Kelly said that a high-ranking official had been in the alleged
terrorist's sights. Sources said that the official was President Obama.

A day after the plot was foiled by an FBI and NYPD operation, which saw Nafis being supplied with fake explosives by an undercover agent, his family has said they are stunned at his involvement.

Quazi Mohammad Ahsanullah said his son, who he said was a devout Muslim, had asked him to finance his education in the U.S., telling him it was worth the money.

'I spent all my savings to send him to America,' Ahsanullah told reporters from his home.

He was there from January to May studying for cybersecurity, before he left and asked for his records be transferred to New York.

'We're stunned. Nafis is not a
radical type. He says prayers five times a day, and reads the holy Koran
and Hadith every day,' his father said.

Worry: Other relatives cry as they claim his innocence at their residence at Uttar Jatrabari in Dhaka

Heartbreak: Nafis's family cries as his mother (left) prays in their middle-class residence

'I have never seen him reading any books on jihad. We don't believe that he can have committed this... He is our pride and joy.'

He
called on the Bangladesh government to intervene to get his son back to
his home country.

'This is nothing but a conspiracy,' he said. 'There is still a racist conspiracy there.
The intelligence of the USA is playing with a mere boy whom we sent for
higher study.

'The allegation against my son is not true at all. He could
not even drive a car. How was he caught with a van?'

His brother-in-law Arik, who is
married to Nafis' doctor sister, said the family had spoken on Wednesday
morning and even discussed a possible bride for him.

'We heard the news this morning.
Everyone is crying here,' Arik told AFP. 'Nafis never showed any form of
radicalisation when he was in Bangladesh.'

After he was forced out of university
in Bangledesh, his family said he moved to study at Missouri Southern
State University but left after a term due to costs and started working
at a New York hotel.

Plot: Pedestrians pass the Federal Reserve Building on Wednesday after authorities foiled the scheme

Sting operation: The FBI arrested a man who allegedly plotted to blow up the Federal Bank in New York, which is only blocks away from ground zero

The sting operation represents a
major coup for the FBI, and is likely to heighten tension in a city
haunted by the 9/11 attacks 11 years ago.

Nafis believed that he was going to detonate his car bomb in front of the
Federal Reserve Building, located on Liberty Street, and had recorded a
video message prior to the attack saying that he intended to deal a major blow to the American economy.

'There is a racist conspiracy.
The allegation against my son is not true at all. The intelligence of the USA is playing with a mere boy whom we sent for
higher study'

Suspect's father

After receiving the false bomb, he
drove with the FBI agent from a warehouse outside the city to the
Federal Reserve building.

The two parked the van in front of the bank
and walked to the nearby Millennium Hotel, according to WABC.

At the
hotel, he recorded a video where he said: ‘We will not stop until we
attain victory or martyrdom.’

Nafis appeared in federal court in
Brooklyn to face charges of attempting to use a
weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to
al Qaeda.

If found guilty, he faces life in prison.

Wearing a brown T-shirt and black jeans, he was ordered held without bail and did not enter a plea.

Alleged target: Obama pictured making a speech today at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa

His defense attorney had no comment outside court. The defendant 'reported having connections' to al-Qaeda, prosecutors said.

But there was no allegation that he received training or direction from the terrorist group.

Destruction: Narfis allegedly told the undercover agent that he wanted to 'destroy America'

He told the undercover FBI agent during
the drive to the Federal Reserve that his jihadist views had been shaped
by al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki.

According to the criminal complaint, Nafis said: 'All I had in my mind are how to destroy America... I came up to this conclusion that targeting America’s economy is most efficient way to draw the path of obliteration of America as well as the path of establishment of Khilapha.’

He continued, according to the complaint: 'I decided to attack the Federal Reserve
bank of New York which is by far the largest (by assets), most active
(by volume) and most influential of the 12 regional Federal Reserve
Banks.

Prosecutors say Nafis traveled to the
U.S. in January to carry out an attack. In July, he contacted a
confidential informant, telling him he wanted to form a terror cell, the
criminal complaint said.

In further conversations, authorities
said Nafis proposed several spots for his attack, including the New
York Stock Exchange - and that in a written letter taking responsibility
for the Federal Reserve job he was about to carry out, he said he
wanted to 'destroy America.'

Other communications took place through Facebook, the complaint said. The
complaint stated that Nafis learned how to make a bomb from a magazine
article published in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula magazine Inspire.

Tactics: New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly speaks to the media about a foiled terrorist plot in the financial district on Wednesday

THE CHICAGO CONNECTION

The joint FBI and NYPD Federal Reserve sting has similarities to the undercover operation that saw an 18-year-old suspected terrorist arrested lat month.

Adel Daoud allegedly tried to trigger a fake bomb set up by FBI
agents outside a Chicago bar on September 20.

He was believed to have wanted to target people drinking
in a downtown business district, known as the Loop.

He told an undercover agent posing as a jihadist that he was pursuing the attack because the U.S. was at
war 'with Islam and Muslims.'

The U.S. attorney's office has said the
device was harmless and the public was never at risk.

Daoud was indicted by a
federal grand jury and is currently held without bond.

His attorney, Thomas Durkin, said his
client was wooed by federal agents posing as terrorists into
participating in the plot.

The magazine contained an article
entitled, ‘How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen with your Mom,’ telling
readers how to construct a detonating bomb with everyday household
items.

NYPD Commissioner Kelly said:'Inspire Magazine, which Awlaki was the prime mover behind, was the
magazine or this is the article that he read that justified to him the
killing of children, the killing of women.'

The foiled Federal Reserve plot came as the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on New York told a court today that the American government was to blame for the 2,976 people killed.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed spoke during a pretrial hearing in Guantanamo Bay attended by many of the victims' families where he refused to accept any guilt.

The Federal Reserve is only blocks away from Ground Zero and the nearly-complete
One World Trade Center construction, an area full of NYPD officers and
other law enforcement officials.

In addition, the bank is close to many highly-populated tourist attractions, residents, and offices.

But federal prosecutors said that Nafis
was closely monitored by the FBI in New York and members of the Joint
Terrorism Task Force, as well as the NYPD, and the public was never in
danger.

Rights: A courtroom sketch shows Quazi Nafis, second right, being arraigned in Brooklyn on Wednesday

Arraignment: Nafis was arraigned at the Brooklyn Federal Court building on Wednesday afternoon

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly praised
his police force, saying in a statement, 'Al-Qaeda operatives and those
they have inspired have tried time and again to make New York City their
killing field.

'We
are up to 15 plots and counting since 9/11, with the Federal Reserve now
added to a list of iconic targets that previously included the Brooklyn
Bridge, the New York Stock Exchange, and Citicorp Center.

He said that while it may be easy to get complacent, more than 1,000 NYPD officers are assigned to counterterrorism duties daily.

He concluded: ‘I want to commend the NYPD detectives and FBI agents of the Joint Terrorism Task Force for the work they did in the case and U.S. Attorney Lynch and her dedicated team in prosecuting it.'

Proximity: The Federal Reserve is only blocks away from the new World Trade Center constructions

When he met with the
undercover FBI agent on Wednesday morning, Nafis mentioned that he had a ‘Plan B’ should his
van bombing plot fail. He allegedly told the agent that he was also
considering a suicide attack.

He
faces charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in
addition to attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda.

According
to the FBI release, Nafis believed that he was going to detonate a
1,000 pound bomb in front of the Federal Reserve Building, located on
Liberty Street.

The bank, located at 33 Liberty St, is one of 12 branches around the country that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, make up the Federal Reserve System that serves as the central bank of the United States. It sets interest rates.